vsr: Been googling and stumbled upon an interesting opinion on what's going on in Syria and why (not recent event):
OK.. why is there a war in Syria? Do you know why? Putin supplies all natural gas to Europe. Qatar has trillions of cubic feet of liquified natural gas and no market. They want to run a pipeline from Qatar, through Saudi Arabia, through Jordan and SYRIA, to Europe. Assad wouldn’t do it because he is allied with Russia. So the US, Israel, and other “allies” create ISIL/ISIS, to produce a fake civil war to oust Assad. What we call in this nation regime change… Hundreds of billions of dollars would be lost by Russia.
vsr: Does make sense.
PS:
List of countries by natural gas proven reserves I think that's just a conspiracy theory. The reality is Syria probably was always going to blow up in some way, its population increased massively in the 1980s and 1990s, and there aren't any good opportunities for many young people. And though I regard the rule of the Assad clan as probably the lesser evil right now, it is an oppressive dictatorship with a clear sectarian basis...many in the Sunni majority obviously would like to throw off the rule of the Alawite minority (whom they regard as heretics anyway). What happened since 2011 isn't without precedent, remember, the elder Assad had the city of Hama flattened in the early 1980s with thousands killed when the Muslim brotherhood staged an uprising there.
I'd agree that the US, Britain and France and probably Israel as well would like to see regime change in Syria for various reasons (as would Turkey and the Gulf states)...but the conflict in Syria/Iraq is homegrown to a large degree (though without foreign meddling it probably wouldn't have lasted as long).
Erpy: I'm not seeing this as a full blown declaration of war, btw, despite the hyperbole. This was intended as a slap on the wrist to Assad for abusing the semi-endorsement he got a few days ago and unless the Syrian regime breaks out the nerve agents again, Trump may very well intend to leave it at this. Of course, in complex situation like Syria, every action has consequences, so even if Trump wanted this to be a one-time only action, reality may dictate otherwise.
I hope you're right. The problem is there are influential networks in US media and politics who are clearly agitating for full regime change in Syria, and I'm not sure Trump is clever and resourceful enough to resist that pressure.
